MindsEye employees renew allegations that GTA ex-producer Leslie Benzies’ Build a Rocket Boy was chaotic, mismanaged

The MindsEye fallout saga continues as new allegations have surfaced from former employees, detailing years of chaos behind the game's development, which was released in June to poor reviews and criticism that ranged from disappointed users to those that called it 'one of the worst games' they had ever played.

Once eagerly watched in part due to Benzies’ role in elevating the Grand Theft Auto series into a cultural icon, Build A Rocket Boy secured over $300 million by 2024 and expanded to 448 employees across offices in Edinburgh, Budapest, and Montpellier. 

While it was initially focused on the ambitious multiplayer RPG Everywhere, which promised user-generated content in a futuristic open world, the studio shifted gears to MindsEye, which was originally perceived as a tie-in experience within Everywhere.

Former employees have painted a grim picture of internal dysfunction, with one staff member, Jamie, who left BARB in 2022, telling the BBC that “Leslie never decided what game he wanted to make,” leading to “no coherent direction” that “plagued the project from the start.”

Former lead data analyst, Ben Newbon, spoke about constant “knee-jerk” decisions from upper management, where critical feedback was consistently “ignored and never actioned.” At the same time, Benzies’ micromanagement manifested into what the team started to call “Leslie tickets” or “Leslie bugs.” 

All direct instructions from Leslie Benzies took precedence over the development team's ongoing work, disrupting teams' ability to manage their own workflows. Margherita “Marg” Peloso, a former associate producer, also chimed in and stated that any attempts to raise concern were “laughed at in meetings with the bosses.” 

This resulted in a culture where staff members felt “commanded to give a lot to the company without too much in return.” A former audio programmer, Isaac Hudd, mentioned how the rapid feature additions requested at the behest of Benzies at “breakneck speed” were too hasty for proper implementation, resulting in regressions where one team’s additions undid another team’s fixes.

Hudd further stated, “And it does mess with you. You really do start to see the morale go down, and the little arguments start to happen. People burning the candle at both ends and starting to think: ‘What's the point?’”

Earlier this month, between 250 and 300 BARB staff were laid off, most of whom were based in the Edinburgh studio. The IWGB union’s Game Workers Branch, on behalf of the staff members, announced that it would be taking legal action.

For its part, Build A Rocket Boy claims in a statement that it would handle the redundancy process with “care and transparency” before mentioning that it was “committed to learning and growing.”

In the statement, the studio further detailed, “Leslie and the entire senior management team take full responsibility for MindsEye’s initial launch. The version of the game that was released did not reflect the experience our community deserved.”

Despite shipping hotfixes and Update 4 to address bugs and improve gameplay, former staff like Newbon call the whole situation a “wasted” opportunity for Scotland's gaming scene amid industry-wide layoffs, which have exceeded tens of thousands in recent years.

The whole MindsEye fiasco has caused the lead actor to fear for future employment, and IO Interactive is taking a break from its third-party publishing ventures.

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